End of Summer Star Gazing Party in Orford

The Upper Valley Land Trust (UVLT) is hosting an end of summer star gazing party at Mountain View Farm Conservation Area in Orford. Join local astronomer David Russ (Lyme, NH) and his two large telescopes for a journey through the stars on Friday, August 30th to celebrate the end of the season.

Mountain View Farm in the Quinttown region of Orford, NH is a place where time has stood still. Far in the hills, along a dirt road, the farm land appears as if from nowhere, carved out of the hillsides. In the past it was a hill farm, owned by Orford’s mysterious and reclusive Billy Brown, who cleared and tended to the land himself well into the 1960’s without electricity or much more than horse power. After Billy, David and John Bischoff purchased the farm and maintained the 147 acres for almost 5 decades before selling the property to the Upper Valley Land Trust in 2016.

The property sits in what feels like a bowl, surrounded by the hills and mountains in the distance. The 360 degree views includes Cube and Smarts Mountain in the distance, and a wide swath of sky. There is no electricity or power lines in the area, and light pollution is barely existent. “The stars on the clear night are as bright as you’ve ever seen them.” Says UVLT Programs Director Alison Marchione, “this is the perfect place to look at the stars.”

This is the second year that UVLT has held a summer star gazing party at Mountain View. “Last year we held the star gazing in conjunction with the VPR star gazing party on the radio,” says Marchione, “it was good, but people had questions about where to look and wanted more information than they got from the radio. They wanted to ask a real person. So this year we asked amateur astronomer David Russ to help guide us through the night sky in person.”

Mr. Russ will be bringing one of the telescopes that he built himself to the star gazing party. It is a ¼ meter Dobsonian reflector telescope that will allow viewers to see colliding galaxies, nebula, super novas and more. Mr. Russ will be joined by UVLT Vice President of Strategic Initiatives John Roe to give a tour of the night sky.

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. Join us from 7:30 to 10:30pm, bring a picnic and a blanket and watch the sunset. Then the real fun begins as the night grows darker. The star gazing party is perfect for children to amateur astronomers, and everyone in between.

More information is available at UVLT's website calendar (www.uvlt.org/calendar) or by contacting Programs Director Alison Marchione at (603) 643-6626 or alison.marchione@uvlt.org.